Congress members stalling anti-graft legislation, not us: BJP

Blaming Congress for non-functioning of parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday attacked its vice president Rahul Gandhi for seeking to blame the opposition for disruptions, saying he should come and see what happens himself..

Refuting Gandhi’s statement that his party has blocked anti-graft legislations in the parliament, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the BJP is not opposed to most of the legislation and is ready to support them if Congress members let the house function.

He took a jibe at Congress saying they brought the legislations at the end of their 10 year rule, when they have lost majority in both houses.

In a blog post, Jaitley said most of these legislations and several other laws such as one relating to protection to be provided to street vendors or setting up of a central university in Bundelkhand are not subject matters of any controversy and can be passed after some discussion.

He said while BJP has “no reservation” against most of these legislations and is ready to support them, and not a single BJP member has disturbed the proceedings of either of the houses but “a large number of members of the Congress Party disturb the Houses every day”.

“We assemble every morning in parliament. The houses are disturbed on account of the issues relating to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh which is pending consideration. The speaker and the chairman of the houses regularly adjourn the houses since proceedings cannot be conducted in this environment,” Jaitley said.

“I don’t think Rahul Gandhi has had time to either come to the house or acquaint himself with the disturbance being created by his own party members.”

Taking another dig at Gandhi, Jaitley said that while he has never spoken on any major scam, he has “only belatedly realized that corruption is a major issue in Indian politics”.

“Instead of patting himself on the back for this rather belated realization and taking undue credit for introducing these legislations towards the fag end of the tenure, Rahul Gandhi needs to look inwards and find out the honest answer to the question why these legislations are held up. Because it is the Congress members who repeatedly disturb the house.”

“The moment Rahul Gandhi realizes the truth and his party takes corrective actions, the BJP will have no difficulty in supporting most of these legislations,” he said.